The OC is over, here's what went wrong

What the hell happened to the OC you might be asking yourself? As Peter Gallagher who played Sandy said "We had a great first season". The OC was a great show in season one and it carried over to episode one of the next season. Then what? The show somehow crashed and burned. Well, looking back, the show made some major mistakes. One, at the end of season one, letting Luke and Jimmy go was a huge mistake. As was letting Samaire, who went onto Entourage go. Samiare was able to create a love triangle for Seth. Luke brought drama to the show, by the end of season one all of the characters got along, this was a mistake. Jimmy also brought drama, after the failed restaurant with Sandy, the writers did not seem to know what to do with his character. Later, losing Caleb had the same effect, he brought drama to the show. Luke not liking Ryan, Sandy arguing with Caleb his inlaw, Jimmy getting in trouble with the SEC, all viable situations. Season One, the show had an air of plausibility if not 100% realism. As the show went along, plausibility went out the window, Marissa gets into heavy drugs, has a lesbian affair, gets involved with thugs, shoots Ryan's brother, etc. The show after season two, episode one seemed to really lose its course and never seemed to develop any direction again. It really seems as if the writers only chartered a course for one year, never expecting the show to be a hit. Another problem was, Mischa Barton (Marissa) got a big head as did Rachel Bilson (Summer). Mischa thought she was going to be a big star and Rachel seemed ready to move on after season one, repeatedly saying the show had run its course after year one. Finally, the affect Laguna Beach had can not be underestimated either, Laguna Beach ended up being a better show than the OC. The fact it was "real" and had people you got invested in like LC, Stephen and Kristen seemed in my mind to dampen my enthusiam for the OC. The key to a good series is having likeable characters, characters you can relate to on some level, and characters for atleast an hour that you invest in and lose yourself in. After awhile, you couldn't like or relate to Marissa, Seth and Summer got boring, and there was lack of any real drama. The bottom line, the OC by the end of Season One, had really resolved all their story lines, Jimmy left, Marissa and Ryan got together, Seth and Summer got together, Luke left, Samaire left, so what was left? Whether the boys would return? You knew they would. The only problem was when they came back, their characters had no where to go. When you see what goes wrong with a show like the OC, it is all the more amazing that a show like Friends can keep you thouroughly invested for close to ten years. I suspect as time goes along, you will have more shows with a predetermined timetable before they ever start and shows like the OC will have shelf life of only two to three seasons to tell their story.